Meme coins took the crypto space by storm in 2021, with Shiba Inu posting historical gains and rewarding early investors massively. These digital coins, inspired by internet jokes and memes, are still very popular. In fact, they remain one of the most popular types of altcoins.
Even though the cryptocurrency market saw a downturn last year, the beginning of 2024 has shown significant bullish promise. If the broader market conditions continue to improve, these 8 meme coins could become the next Shiba Inu:
- Pepe Coin - A meme coin that exploded in 2023
- Bonk - The hottest meme coin on Solana
- Dogwifhat - 2024's most hyped meme coin
- Wen - A meme coin related to the Jupiter project
- Baby Doge Coin - A meme coin with auto-burn, NFTs, and more
- Coq Inu - The leading Avalanche meme coin
- Floki Inu - Meme coin inspired by Elon Musk's dog
- Tamadoge - A Play-to-Earn meme coin platform
Key highlights:
- In 2021, Shiba Inu displayed one of the biggest price increases we've ever seen in the cryptocurrency.
- Following this rally, countless new meme coins were created in an attempt to mimic Shiba Inu's success.
- We feature 8 meme coins that could potentially also see large price increases under the right circumstances.
- Buying meme coins as an investment is very risky, since they typically have no real utility or fundamentals.
One of these 8 meme coins could be the next Shiba Inu
As hinted in the introductory part, Shiba Inu was among the biggest winners during the crypto bull run of 2021. The meme coin was created in August 2020, and by October 2021, it reached an all-time high value of $0.00008845. Between January 1st, 2021 and October 28th, 2021, Shiba Inu gained more than 85,784,180%, creating many millionaires in the process.
While it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see such a massive rally again, the success of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu has spawned many other meme coins that are contending for attention in the crypto community. Let’s take a look at 8 meme coins that could mimic the success of Shiba Inu in the future:
1. Pepe Coin (PEPE)
Pepe is a meme coin on the Ethereum blockchain that first launched in April 2021 and quickly caught the attention of the cryptocurrency community. Even though PEPE does not really offer any utility, its initial price increase went viral in the world of crypto, attracting an increasing number of speculators to hop on the bandwagon and acquire some tokens.
The Pepe frenzy reached a fever pitch in early May 2023, when the PEPE token reached its all-time high after being listed by a number of top-tier cryptocurrency exchanges, most notably Binance. The huge levels of hype surrounding PEPE resulted in hundreds of new meme coins, and we can say that the project single-handedly restarted the crypto community's fascination with meme coins, which faded significantly in the 2022 bear market.
Even though PEPE is down 70% from its all-time high, it still has a very impressive $562 million market capitalization and is comfortably ranked as the third-largest meme coin.
2. Bonk (BONK)
Bonk is a meme coin deployed on the highly scalable Solana blockchain, and it received a huge amount of attention during its initial launch in late 2022 through a free airdrop to Solana community members. As outlined on the Bonk website, the project's goal is to reduce the influence of venture capital investors within the Solana network and empower regular users.
According to Bonk's developers, the token has been integrated into over 130 different products across the gaming, betting, decentralized finance, and non-fungible token (NFT) sectors. Notably, the Bonk community has created various games allowing participants to both spend and earn BONK tokens.
Interest in Bonk quickly died down following its launch in 2022. However, Bonk saw a huge resurgence in late 2023, gaining over 5,600% in the last 3 months of the year. This performance catapulted BONK among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. At the time of writing, the token enjoys a market cap of just under $770 million.
3. Dogwifhat (WIF)
Dogwifhat is a meme coin launched on the Solana blockchain in November 2023. WIF's debut on the market coincided with a surge in interest for the Solana ecosystem following SOL's impressive rally throughout 2023.
Dogwifhat follows the simple recipe adopted by meme coins that have found success recently. The project doesn't have a roadmap and doesn't promise any utility for WIF. The project's entire branding revolves around variations of an image depicting a dog wearing a hat.
The humor of the Dogwifhat project is based on internet humor and it features many references to obscure internet memes. Similar to many of its counterparts in the meme coin space, Dogwifhat seems to be poking fun at the speculative mania that's prevalent in the cryptocurrency trading scene.
WIF has been one of 2024's strongest performers in the cryptocurrency market so far. At the time of writing, WIF is posting a +1,078% year-to-date change and its market capitalization of $2.19 billion ranks it as the 53rd biggest cryptocurrency overall.
4. Wen (WEN)
Wen is a meme coin on the Solana blockchain that's related to the Jupiter decentralized exchange.
The stated goal of the project is to "give back to the Solana community", and the majority of the WEN's supply was distributed through a free airdrop. WEN tokens could be claimed by all users who had used the Jupiter decentralized exchange in a six-month time frame, users who purchased the Saga smartphone, and holders of certain NFTs. Out of the 700 billion tokens that were reserved for the airdrop, more than 400 billion was claimed, and the unclaimed tokens were burned.
Wen is primarily presented as a meme coin, but has some niche utility as a token that represents ownership of a fractional NFT created by "meow", which is the pseudonym used by the lead of the Jupiter project.
Shortly following the WEN airdrop, the token's price saw huge volatility, displaying a price spike that was quickly followed by a sharp correction. However, WEN benefited significantly from the meme coin rally that ignited in early March 2024, with the WEN price advancing to new all-time highs.
5. Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE)
Dogecoin was another big performer in the meme coin ecosystem last year. Therefore, It is only natural that other projects are trying to emulate its success. One of the best-known examples is Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE). The new coin has a lot in common with Dogecoin. It is also important to state that Baby Doge Coin was birthed by members of the DOGE online community. Launched in 2021, Baby Doge Coin has an ambitious roadmap, including NFT creation, pet charity and GameFi.
The current BABYDOGE price prediction may not be as pleasant as many would want, but it could certainly pick up with time. It is worth noting that Baby Doge Coin outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as 80% of the top 100 crypto assets in the last year. As a highly-ranked meme coin, it’s probably one of the most viable competitors to become the next Shiba Inu coin.
6. Coq Inu (COQ)
Coq Inu is a meme coin introduced in December 2023 during the second wave of the year's meme coin frenzy. It currently enjoys the position of being the largest meme coin on the Avalanche blockchain, with a market cap of approximately $111 million as of January 2024.
Much like several other meme coins gaining popularity recently, Coq Inu is a project that doesn't aim to provide any intrinsic value or utility to its token. The project has no formal team, and there are no official discussions regarding a roadmap or future plans for the token. Despite this, the project recently organized a hackathon, with COQ tokens being awarded to the competition's winners.
The COQ token has a total supply of 69.420 trillion, which a playful reference to internet memes. The project's humor is predominantly centered around its rooster mascot and the various innuendos that can be made using the more colloquial name for the animal.
7. Floki Inu (FLOKI)
Floki Inu is another cryptocurrency that emerged during the Dogecoin and Shiba Inu craze in 2021. The name "Floki" is inspired by Elon Musk's Shiba Inu dog and originates from the TV show "Vikings," which explains the Viking-themed branding of the Floki Inu coin.
While many similar meme coins that appeared in 2021 faded away, Floki Inu has managed to maintain its presence and currently holds an impressive market cap of $227 million, placing it at the 132nd spot in the cryptocurrency rankings.
The Floki Inu project follows a strategy similar to Shiba Inu, introducing various products to add utility to the FLOKI coin. These include a 3D NFT collection, a decentralized finance tool called FlokiFi locker, and a Metaverse game named Valhalla.
8. Tamadoge (TAMA)
Tamadoge is one of the newest entries into the meme coin niche, but it is coming with a bang. A play-to-earn meme coin, TAMA is a gateway token to Tamaverse, a metaverse gaming environment that allows users to mint, breed and battle with their own pet that resembles the popular Tamagotchi toys of the 1990s.
As the gaming industry continues to improve and align with blockchain technology, coins like TAMA could be positioned well to achieve adoption and growth..
Our Tamadoge price prediction is deeply influenced by market factors, so a bearish forecast can turn bullish with time. In terms of potential, TAMA is a coin to beat. As the Tamaverse continues to evolve, there could be opportunities for the TAMA token to grow as well. When the crypto market eventually recovers and goes on a bullish trend, coins like Tamadoge will likely perform very well.
The bottom line: Which crypto is going to be the next Shiba Inu coin?
The days of crypto investors underrating meme coins are long gone, as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu outperformed many cryptocurrencies in 2021. It is understandable that most crypto enthusiasts can’t wait to discover the next Shiba Inu or any other crypto to explode. In fact, these coins repeatedly get featured on lists of best cryptos to buy, as they usually boast robust communities that are instrumental in building a successful decentralized project.
We’ve presented the top meme coins that could see growth once the crypto market returns to a bullish phase. We considered the nature of the individual projects as well as our algorithmic-based price forecast for each coin before picking out the top coins. Of course, you should perform your own due diligence before making the next move. In addition, you can check our ultimate guide on crypto investing for more info about the topic.
| Launched in | Market cap | Blockchain platform | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shiba Inu | August 2020 | $5.9B | Ethereum |
| Pepe Coin | April 2023 | $532M | Ethereum |
| Bonk | December 2022 | $770M | Solana |
| Baby Doge Coin | June 2021 | $186M | BNB Chain |
| Coq Inu | December 2023 | $110M | Avalanche |
| Floki Inu | June 2021 | $310M | Ethereum and BNB Chain |
| Rich Quack | June 2021 | $41M | BNB Chain |
| Dogelon Mars | April 2021 | $93M | Ethereum |
| Tamadoge | September 2022 | $10M | Ethereum |
*Data as of January 4, 2024
